KEY POINTS:
It wasn't until I actually saw some of the fabled Faberge eggs on display in the Kremlin's Armoury museum that I began to understand what the fuss was about.
As symbols of ostentatious wealth, extraordinary craftsmanship and untrammelled royal power, the eggs are surely unequalled. The Trans-Siberian
Railway Egg, with a silver map of the newly completed railway on the outside, and a wind-up miniature train in gold, with diamond headlights and ruby lanterns, left me astounded at its opulence and beauty.
The others on display were just as amazing. The story behind these creations is, as Tony Faber reveals in this charming account, equally extraordinary - a tantalising mixture of domestic bliss and the brutal sweep of history, commercial cunning and political stupidity, thoughtful design and crass cupidity.
It begins with Carl Faberge, a humble jeweller in St Petersburg until 1885 when he was commissioned by Tsar Alexander III to produce an Easter surprise for his wife, Maria.
The result, a plain, white, enamel egg, which opens to reveal a yolk and hen made of gold, was so successful, the presentation of such eggs became a tradition, one continued by Alexander's son, Nicholas II. As Faberge's skilled workers produced ever more elaborate royal eggs with ever more remarkable surprises inside - 50 of them altogether - the fame of their workshop spread.
Before long, Carl was employing hundreds of workers turning out walking stick handles, scent bottles, pieces of jewellery and ornamental nick-nacks for those who wanted a little something from the jeweller to the ruler of Russia.
Of course, as Faber outlines, while Nicholas was buying incredibly costly Easter gifts for his loved ones, his country was hurtling towards a disastrous war, widespread suffering, administrative collapse and bloody revolution.
The Tsar was executed, Faberge's workshop was destroyed and the family fled abroad, while the eggs vanished. The final stage of the saga, how the eggs gradually re-emerged, some sold by Stalin to earn desperately needed funds, others smuggled by fleeing royals, is like a detective story. Today the whereabouts of 46 of them is known - plus a few clever fakes - and they continue to be eagerly sought after by the richest and most powerful people on the planet when they come up for sale.
Ironically, the best place to see them is, once again, a Russian royal palace, namely the Kremlin. A few were always retained by the communists and the biggest collection, nine eggs assembled by millionaire American publisher Malcolm Forbes, was bought after his death by an anonymous buyer for more than US$90 million ($120 million).
The buyer turned out to be Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, and they went on display for the first time in 2004. Just two years later the remains of the Empress Maria, for whom the eggs were first made, were brought back to St Petersburg and interred alongside her executed son, his wife and children, in the royal crypt in the St Peter and St Paul fortress.
As Faber concludes, the tragic circle which began when the Tsar first gifted her a jewelled Easter egg 121 years before, was finally complete.
* Jim Eagles is the Herald travel editor.
Faberge'S Eggs - By Tony Faber
(Macmillan, $49.99)
- NZ Herald